Series

Connect With Us

On Media

The Deep Throat days are back

By Dylan Byers

08/02/12 11:23 AM EDT

The New York Times' Scott Shane reports this morning that the FBI's hunt for leakers — at the White House, the Pentagon, the National Security Agency and the CIA — has cast "a distinct chill" over press coverage of national security issues.

The potential ramifications of the hunt are serious and, in conjunction with new legislation passed last week in the Senate, could significantly curtail officials' ability to speak to reporters anonymously or on “background."

But if it's a bad day for journalism, it's certainly a great day for your romantic film-noir notions of pre-Internet age reporting:

“People are being cautious,” said one intelligence official who, considering the circumstances, spoke on condition of anonymity. “We’re not doing some of the routine things we usually do,” he added, referring to briefings on American security efforts and subjects in the news.

Gregg Leslie, the interim executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, an advocacy group, said the effect of the current investigation comes on top of a growing awareness by journalists in the last two years that the government often tracks employees’ email and telephone contacts.

“Reporters are beginning to resort to the old practice of meeting on a park bench to avoid leaving an electronic trail,” he said.